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Brentford FC head coach Thomas Frank and assistant head coach Brian Riemer have both signed new long-term contracts. The pair signed their new deals at the end of last week, committing their futures to the Club. They are now under contract until the end of the 2024/25 season.
Thomas and Brian have worked together at Brentford FC since late 2018. In that time Brentford have won promotion to the Premier League after consecutive third-placed finishes in the Sky Bet Championship and have played top-flight football for the first time since 1947. The Bees have also reached a Carabao Cup Semifinal, as well as a Quarterfinal in the same competition and the Fifth Round of the FA Cup in 2019.
Phil Giles, Brentford Director of Football, said, “On behalf of everyone at Brentford, I’d like to congratulate Thomas and Brian on their new contracts. First and foremost, they are fantastic people to work with and I’m sure everyone at the Club will be pleased that they have committed to stay with us until 2025.”
“They have been integral to the success that we’ve shared over recent seasons, culminating in achieving our shared target of playing in the Premier League. We want to continue to take Brentford forward, to compete with clubs far bigger than us, and to see how far we can progress. I am sure that we can build on the success that Thomas and Brian have helped deliver along with all of the other staff and players and look forward to what I hope will be a successful conclusion to the season and beyond.”
Thomas has been Brentford Head Coach since October 2018. He originally joined The Bees in 2016 as part of the coaching team under, his predecessor as Head Coach, Dean Smith. He was appointed to the role of Assistant Head Coach and took on his first job outside his native Denmark. When Dean left to join Aston Villa, Thomas was appointed to the Head Coach position.
After a spell in youth coaching early in his career, Thomas took up a role with the Danish FA in 2008, working with country’s Under-16, Under-17 and Under-19 teams. In 2013 he took up the managerial reins at Brøndby. He led them to finishes of fourth and third in his two full seasons at the helm before leaving in March 2016.
Brian joined The Bees from FC Copenhagen in October 2018, a few days after Thomas took on the Head Coach role. He had been in charge of the Under-19 side at Copenhagen since the summer of 2015. He spent the three years before that as Assistant Manager at the club, having worked in the youth department since 2008. He had previously worked in the same youth development position at Hvidovre IF.
While Assistant Manager at Copenhagen, Brian worked alongside Ariël Jacobs and then Ståle Solbakken, currently Norway boss. Copenhagen won the Danish title in 2012/13, Brian’s first season in the role. They finished second in his two other seasons in the position and Brian was also involved as they played in the UEFA Champions League in 2013/14.
Thomas and Brian are in to their third full season working together at Brentford. After an 11th-place finish in the Championship in 2018/19, a season that also saw The Bees reach the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, Brentford finished third a year later. The Bees reached the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final in a campaign interrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak but missed out on promotion.
A year later Brentford once again finished third in the table, earning more points than 12 months earlier in a season condensed by the ongoing pandemic, and reaching the Carabao Cup Semi-Final, the first time The Bees had reached the last four of a major cup. This time Brentford won the Play-Offs, beating Swansea City in the final. The Bees are 23 games in to their first top-flight season since the late 1940s and have earned 23 points to date.
